REFLECTIONS with Christiana Babayo
Let’s not judge Deborah’s killers as men of faith
The gruesome and brutal murder of Deborah Yakubu of the College of Education Sokoto state is by far one of the most vicious thing Nigerians have ever done in the history of this country. That is the perfect definition of man’s inhumanity to fellow man and the hypnotizing effect of religion on Nigerians.
But the irony of Nigerian behavior, when it comes to religion, Nigerians fight for their God but when it comes to their rights, they let God fight for them, how convenient. What we practice is not religion, its hypnosis because no religion enjoins us to kill.
Deborah Yakubu was stoned, beaten, battered and burnt to death for what some class of uneducated people call ‘blasphemous comments’. What in God’s name does that even mean? Someone undermines your God and your God didn’t even retaliate but you have killed someone on his behalf, that’s crying more than the bereaved.
Deborah basically died because of a comment she made on the Watsapp group made for the class where someone posted something about the Prophet SAW and she commented that the group was not created to send useless information, it was created to send information about tests, assignments…what prophet?
Deborah shouldn’t have said that knowing the environment she was in, yes! But was it worth the jungle justice they gave her? Reactions continue to trail the incident and it is giving us room to understand just how far behind we are when it comes to using common sense.
Someone asked, ‘was it the prophet SAW that admonished Muslims to kill anyone who blasphemes his name or is it some set of confused Muslims that have taken it upon themselves to carry out such barbaric act?’
Violence and wickedness of such magnitude should have no religion. I don’t think even the Prophet Mohammed SAW would applaud the perpetrators of such act. So in the spirit of getting justice for Deborah, let’s judge these evil people that killed Deborah as individuals, lets judge them as men, not as people of faith.
Allegedly, former Vice President and Presidential Aspirant, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, made a post on his twitter handle, condemning the killing of the innocent Deborah but somehow, our presidential hopeful took it down when his Arewa brothers threatened him and his aspiration. Well some would say he was afraid of losing his grip on the north come 2023, but as the situation stands, he has lost his grip on more than just the North.
His words’ “There can be no justification for such a gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered and all those behind her death must be brought to justice. My condolences to her family and friends”
When Napoleaon Bonparte said, ‘the world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people‘I think they were talking about this instance.
And apparently, another report suggested that the police even had Deborah before she was murdered but somehow she still ended up murdered. We have all failed that innocent girl and if Nigerian movies actually came to pass, her ghost would hunt all of us for failing to protect her.
Meanwhile the Sultan of Sokoto has condemned the brutal act and ordered security to bring the perpetrators to justice. It is a good move but that shouldn’t be enough because Nigerians have a habit of putting issues under the carpet once the emotions wane. Let us see this justice through.
In the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘when I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad and that’s my religion’. Good is good, bad is bad, it doesn’t matter who is doing it or where.
Therefore, let’s not judge the Miss Deborah killers as men of faith, but a gang of ignoble miscreants that the community is unfortunate to have.
