Sharia law splits Nigerians

2003-09-23 19:09

Lagos - If housewife Amina Lawal this week wins her appeal in an Islamic court against her sentence to be stoned to death for adultery, Nigeria's secular government will breathe a sigh of relief.

But the dispute over northern Nigeria's reintroduction of Shari'ah law will not disappear with the acquittal of its most famous defendant, and pressure is mounting on President Olusegun Obasanjo to step in.

Since the end of military rule in the west African state in 1999, a dozen mainly-Muslim states have brought back elements of Shari'ah into their penal codes, a move which has increased tensions between Muslim and Christian communities.

Obasanjo, a Christian wary of offending Muslims who make up half of Nigeria's 126-million-strong population, stood by as the states brought back stoning for sex crimes and hand-chopping for thieves.

When Lawal and at least two more divorcees were condemned for bearing children out of wedlock, and their sentences made international headlines, his response was simply to promise they would be cleared on appeal.

Acquittal on a technicality

Most observers expect Lawal to be duly acquitted by Islamic judges on a technicality on Thursday at Katsina Shari'ah Appeal Court, a result which would give the president some respite from international criticism.

But within Nigeria, Christian groups and rights activists are furious that he has not used the option given him by Nigeria's 1999 constitution to challenge a law code they believe violates fundamental freedoms.

"The constitution of Nigeria is supreme in legal matters," Nwachukwu Ike, a senior lawyer with Nigeria's biggest and most respected rights group, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), said this week.

"Extending the jurisdiction of Shari'ah to cover criminal matters is unconstitutional. We in the CLO also note that the federal government has not challenged the implementation of the criminal aspects of Shari'ah law.

"Government seems to have abdicated its responsibility in this way, by asking aggrieved Nigerians to go to court to fight for their rights. It is simply an abdication of responsibility," he said.

No member of the Nigerian government was available on Tuesday to comment on this charge.

Officials, including Obasanjo himself, have in the past insisted that someone like Lawal, who believes she was wrongly convicted, must appeal her case up to the Supreme Court before a judgement on Shari'ah can be made.

Govt accused of turning a blind eye

Christian groups accuse the government of at best turning a blind eye to what they see as a creeping Islamisation of parts of Nigeria, an ethnically and religiously diverse federation.

"Our experience is that government is indirectly forcing Shari'ah on all Nigerians and infringing on the rights of non-Muslims resident in the north," said the Catholic Church's spokesperson Father Emmanuel Badejo.

Speaking to AFP this week, Badejo cited last month's decree in the northern state of Kano that schoolgirls should wear Muslim headscarves.

"In Kano, young schoolgirls are forced to wear the hijab, even if it is against their wish. No Nigerian should be made to feel cheated or discriminated against," he said.

Last month a Kano State spokesperson said that the order did not apply to students from the region's Christian minority, even though the decree itself simply referred to "all female students".

It is not clear whether schools are enforcing the dress code on Christian girls.

"The Nigerian constitution stipulates that no state in Nigeria should adopt any religion as a state religion. So, Shari'ah adoption and implementation is unconstitutional," Badejo said.

Shari'ah targets poor and uneducated

Even within the Muslim community, concern is growing that the application of the Shari'ah has been unfair and has targeted poor and uneducated Nigerians, like Lawal, rather than Nigeria's elite, widely accused of corruption and greed.

"It's only used against the underprivileged and the people who are poor," Shehu Sani, a Muslim and head of the pressure group Civil Rights Congress, said on Tuesday.

"You can go into any five-star hotel and see," he said, pointing to the flagrant disregard of Shari'ah by powerful businessmen and politicians who nevertheless sponsored its re-adoption.

Many hotel bars in northern Nigeria are haunted by prostitutes and openly serve alcohol to Christians and Muslims alike.

Sani said that 16 supporters of his group were five days into a hunger strike in protest at Amina's treatment, and that a 120-strong crowd of protesters would attend Thursday's hearing.

"If she is acquitted, there will be no protest. If not, there will be," he warned.

- AFP