on the state front, Islamic extremism is typified in the activities of Hisbah or the sharia police
By Leo Igwe
The Nigerian nation-state is under assault from jihadist groups on two main fronts. First, on the non-state axis, this onslaught is embodied in the activities of Boko Haram and other extremist organizations, that are campaigning to impose their own version of sharia law and the Islamic state. Then on the state front, Islamic extremism is typified in the activities of Hisbah or the sharia police. This is the body that enforces sharia law in the Muslim majority states in Northern Nigeria.
Incidentally, there has been a lot of focus on the activities of Boko Haram and its violent campaign to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. In fact the impression is that Islamic extremist operations are the handiwork of mainly non-state movements. Indeed the activities of Boko Haram militants have led to the vicious murder, kidnapping, and displacement so many people in Northern Nigeria. Islamic extremism also manifests as ‘state programs’.
activities of Boko Haram and its violent campaign to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state
In fact little attention has been paid to the state version of Boko Haram, the Hisbah. Hisbah and other sharia implementing formations came into being following the adoption of sharia law by Muslim majority states. The sharia police force has continued to assault Nigerians in the name of implement sharia. For instance, it has recently been reported that Hisbah in Kano destroyed over 30-trailer load of beer. These bottles of beer were not worthless goods, but business products with commercial value that belonged to Nigerians, taxpaying Nigerian citizens.
Hisbah justified its action based on a local law that bans the manufacture and use of intoxicants in the state. But how does that law compare with the federal policy that allocates value-added tax from alcohol to Kano state?
Hisbah said that it had intercepted over 12 million bottles of beer and destroyed over 7 million. In Jigawa, Hisbah have arrested some persons in connection with drinking alcohol and confiscated over 900 bottles of beer.
There has been a deafening silence over the abusive, unconstitutional acts of Hisbah and the various sharia policing bodies in northern Nigeria. Local and federal state authorities have refused to intervene and call to order the menacing sharia police units that are terrorizing innocent citizens except when it has to do with their immediate families.
The government at state and federal levels should rein in, Hisbah and other the sharia policing units in the northern states. As it stands now, the sharia police are operating above the Nigerian law and in violation of the basic human rights.
Sharia implementation is no longer for muslims only as was earlier stated. In fact the enforcement of sharia law is now a pretext to selectively terrorize, harass and assault Nigerians. Hisbah is slowing becoming the state version of Boko Haram. And sharia implementation is gradually turning into a form of state -based Islamic terrorist program.
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
