Time For Sheikh Zakzaky’s Release -By Najeeb Maigatari

In an interview with Deutsch Welle Hausa radio program on the 29th of April 2019, the chairman Kaduna faction of Jama’atu Izalatul Bid’a wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS), Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau, has urged the Federal government of Nigeria to ensure that justice is, having being the core substance in which a  promising society survives, immediately served to the illegally detained leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, revered Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.

Sheikh Bala Lau highlighted the need for the Nigerian government to put an end to its continued disregard for rule of law and infringement of fundamental human rights against the Sheikh specially, such as the right to freedom of speech and expression; right to freedom of worship in which he categorically emphasized that every citizen of Nigeria have the right to practice, freely and unopposed, his beliefs.

This call is coming at a time when the Sheikh has on 20th April 2019 clocked 68, with 3 of his previous birthday in illegal detention. The birthday was celebrated amidst tears, with colorful peaceful protest by his followers in the capital city Abuja.

The day before yesterday, 27th April 2019, one of the leading Nigerian dailies, @TheNationNg published on its editorial: “The Nightmares of Shiites won’t go away easily” in which it also, after highlighting the various encounters the followers of the Sheikh have had with the security operatives during their peaceful protests which always ends up with loss of lives from the Sheikh’s followers, unequivocally calls for the immediate release of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky; doing of which according to the editorial, will ease the tension between the government and the Shiites.

According to the editorial, “By now, too, the Federal government must be slowly becoming aware that applying lethal and often disproportionate force against the Shiites will amount to nothing in the face of glaring injustice and cruel and degrading treatment meted out to the sect. So far, no one has been held accountable for the 2015 Zaria massacre. The federal and state governments gloss over it. But until justice is done, neither the Shiites nor the Kaduna state government, nor even the federal government, will rest.”

This week, still, I read from @TheWillNg yet another opinion written by one Benjamin Abiajulu wherein he also, unequivocally, calls upon “good people” (as he used the words) to pressure the government into releasing the honorable Sheikh. Other national dailies have followed with keen interest the visit of medical experts led by Shadjareh Massoud of the International Human Rights Commission (ihrc), a UK based organization, who are expected to assess- only assess- the health condition of the ailing Sheikh and that of his wife.

Yesterday, again, while addressing a press conference to kick-off the national convention of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), the Ibadan president Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev’d Samson Ayokunle, has told the Federal government that it is time to release the Sheikh and former NSA Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd). This is not the first time CAN has made this call. Its leadership has severally urged the president, in most of their meetings at the presidential villa, to do the needful and respect court order to release the Sheikh. Various religious and non-governmental human right organizations, within and outside the country, had since followed suit in calling for the release of the Sheikh; the JNI, HURIWA, IHRC, Amnesty International, Concerned Nigerians and Human Right Watch among others too numerous to mention.

These calls, and various others I have not mentioned, clearly show that no one- no individual with the shred of humanity- is supporting the continued illegal detention of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife amidst the fear of their deteriorating health condition. Nevertheless, a Federal High court sitting in Abuja led by Mr. Gabriel Kolawole had on 2nd December 2016 ordered the immediate and unconditional release of the Sheikh. A court order which the Federal government contemptuously failed to comply to this date.

In the late afternoon of yesterday, the foreign medical experts who were allowed to visit the Sheikh, for the first time in four years, made public the findings of their preliminary assessment. According to the assessment, the Sheikh is having serious multiple health complications, which could only be treated in a well-equipped facility. They therefore sited the need for the Sheikh to be flown abroad for immediate medical attention. The Sheikh has lost profound vision of his left eye, which is albeit the only healthy one. The right one is already gone! He is also living with shrapnels still in his ailing, old-aged body. It could be recalled that the Sheikh has also battled Acute stroke on the early months of 2018, which left him with weakened motor function of mainly the right part of his body.

The story is no different for his wife, Zeenat Ibraheem, a grieving mother of 9, out of which 6 were killed in cold blooded; in less than two years; who has been battling chronic osteoarthritis for a long period of time owing to her aging body, as a result of which she, unfortunately now, couldn’t stand on her feet. She has to use stretcher chair to carry out daily activities.

If not for anything but for the deteriorating health condition of the Sheikh and his wife, the duo should be released to, at least, attend to their health. So many a great number of disease occur concomitantly with aging, every of which is difficult to treat even with proper medical attention. The immune system of the body is already weakened (with aging); further weakening it by depriving this couple the freedom to be properly cared for, by their loved ones, is brutal.

Allowing foreign medical experts to attend to them isn’t just enough, a very good gesture though. Absolute freedom is what they deserve! They are parents, like all other parents; and should not be snatched of the opportunity to age and give up the ghost before the eyes of their children.

The sky is darkening and the cloud is thickening with each passing day, a rainstorm is coming as security in every nook and cranny is deteriorating; the case of Sheikh Zakzaky is manageable only if justice could be served. The government should understand that the life of Sheikh Zakzaky is as crucial as ever to the peace of the nation. His followers always have had protested peacefully, and forever will, as long as he is not released and the capital city Abuja should be ready to witness more turnouts as their protests further intensifies. Sheikh Zakzaky’s followers have patiently embraced killings of all sort, stigmatization, imprisonment and gruesome injustice; they therefore should not be pushed to the wall as the famous African-American Marxist writer George L Jackson said: “Patience has its limit, take it too far, and it is cowardice”. Their patience, like all other patience, have a limit and shouldn’t be crossed for they will never be cowed.

In the light of all these, I submit that there is no better time- at the wake of the government’s failure to do the needful a long time ago- to release Sheikh Zakzaky, his wife Zeenah Ibraheem and other hundreds of his followers languishing in various detention facilities than now. Not today, not tomorrow and not the day after that, but just NOW!

Najeeb Maigatari, a student, wrote the piece and could be reached at Maigatari313@gmail.com