Blasphemy: Ganduje and Continued Detention of Mubarak Bala in Kano

By Leo Igwe

The Kano state governor, Alhaji Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, should be called out for his role in the continued detention without trial of the Nigerian Humanist, Mubarak Bala. Bala has been in custody without any formal charge or prosecution since April 28. And Gov Ganduje seems to be indifferent. He has refused to intervene and order the release of Bala despite local and international appeals and a Federal High court order to that respect. Gov Ganduje is the chief security officer of the state. He has the duty of guaranteeing the rights, safety, and protection of people in Kano state. But he has reneged on this duty in the case of Bala. Why?

Since he was elected to govern Kano in 2015, Ganduje has not hidden his Islamist intent and mission. He has intervened in many cases involving allegations of blasphemy or perceived persecution or abduction of Muslims. Ganduje has wielded into cases involving Muslims in places outside Kano state, including the reported demolition of a mosque in Port Harcourt in 2019. In all these cases, Ganduje intervened to defend Islam as he understood it. He stepped in to shield Muslims from prosecution and justice. For instance, Ganduje has backed the sentencing of Muslims of Sufi order for blasphemy, while ensuring that Muslim blasphemy killers are acquitted and made to go scot-free. Ganduje has supported the abusive, illegal, and unconstitutional activities of the Islamic police, Hisbah, in Kano. In the name of enforcing sharia law, Hishbah has harrassed and molested non-Muslims. The Islamic police have seized and destroyed the goods of nonmuslim traders in Kano. When it comes to furthering Islam and defending the interests of Muslims, as he understood it, Ganduje has been forthcoming and active.

Ganduje leaves no one in doubt that he is in charge in Kano state.
However, since April, Ganduje has maintained a deafening silence on Bala’s case. At a meeting with some European diplomats last year, the governor feigned ignorance of the case of Bala. Meanwhile, Bala had been in detention for months in his state. From all indications, Ganduje is responsible for the continued detention of Bala and the refusal by his government to comply with a Federal High court order that had ordered the release of Bala. Ganduje did not need a court order to intervene in cases concerning Muslims in Rivers and Anambra states.

He did not need a court order to ensure the acquittal of suspected Muslim killers of a Christian woman in Kano in 2016. But in the case of Bala, a court judgment has been issued but the Kano authorities have refused to comply. The commissioner of police in Kano has disregarded the court order. He claims that Bala was no longer in their custody. The state police chief has made it seem as if the police were not responsible for Bala’s arrest. Also, the attorney general and commissioner for justice cannot get the state to comply with a federal high court ruling. Look, even if the police refuse to obey the court order, is it not the duty of the attorney general to ensure compliance?

Now, if the commissioner of police and the attorney general could not enforce the court order, why can’t Ganduje step in and ensure that the court order is adhered to if he had no interest in the illegal detention of Bala? The buck stops at the table of Ganduje.

He should release Mubarak Bala now!

Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria