The worst happened yesterday. A female student by the name of Deborah Yakubu, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto was mobbed to death and later set on fire by her colleagues around the school premises. What was her offense; her killers claimed that she blasphemed against their dear Prophet, MUHAMMED; she insulted the prophet and the punishment was instant death.

According to the voice note that she sent to the class WhatsApp group that led to her death which she spoke in Hausa, the loose translation of it was; “Holy Ghost fire! nothing will happen to us. The group was not created for sending nonsense stuff. It was rather created to send past questions, if there is a test, or if we are given assignments not all these nonsense things. Which kind prophet, nonsense Prophet”.

Background: She was reacting to her colleagues always posting religious content in the WhatsApp group which was created solely for academic reasons. The colleagues being mostly Muslims didn’t take her reaction likely and decided to track her down, beat her to death then set her ablaze.

Although her utterances were utterly derogatory and insulting, that should not be what will make her classmates track her down and attack her to death.

Before you panic, save your breath, this is not the first time that a person or people are mobbed to death and then set ablaze for blasphemy against prophet MUHAMMED in Northern Nigeria in recent times, it happened in Kano in 2016. What is more shocking is that the place where this took place is a higher institution of learning, the least place religious intolerance is expected to be in existence in 2022.

How can we still be struggling to save our heads and be cautious not to be hacked to death for blasphemy in Northern Nigeria in 2022? The most surprising thing is that most Northern Muslims saw nothing wrong with that, some are defending the act and quoting Quran to back it up that when you insult the prophet MUHAMMED you deserve to die.

Even those that occupy a high ranking position in society are openly defending the act even on social media. The excitement of the mobs while carrying out the act is dreadful; acts like these are barbaric and are only churned out of religious extremism or fanaticism and sheer ignorance.

We should learn to coexist in peace amongst one another despite the religion, tribe, state or skin pigmentation. It is humanity over religion, humanity over the tribe, humanity over race.

Religious leaders should educate their followers that we are not in the jungle where jungle justice is the order of the day, most of them are clearly ignorant and are always eager to take the law into their hands with the excitement that they are fighting the holy war or fighting for their god. There are institutions that have been put in place to address grievances and anybody who is aggrieved should approach those institutions to address their grievances, that is how it ought to be in a civilized society like Nigeria.

This should not be one of the mob actions that the law enforcement agencies will sweep under the carpet, they should do the needful and bring everybody who is part of this dastard act to justice, every single one of them. The punishment for murder in Nigeria is a death sentence, so nothing less is expected of the law enforcement and the judiciary; examples must be set to deter others from committing this kind of act in the future and be forced to learn religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, Thursday 12th May 2022,  met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja behind closed doors.

When approached by newsmen immediately after the meeting, Mr Emefiele stated that his fate was still being decided as regards the controversy surrounding his presidential bid.

On the notion that his current position as a presidential aspirant and the CBN governor is a major point of concern for Nigerians and even the international community, he replied, “Let them have heart attacks. It’s good to have a heart attack.”

He further disclosed that despite the current outrage by Nigerians, the main opposition, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), and the international community, he was ‘having fun’ over everything.

Emefiele’s assertion comes barely 24 hours after the President ordered members of his cabinet vying for various elective positions to resign on or before May 16, 2022.

Also, a circular signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha with reference number SGF/OP/ I/S.3/XII/ 173, titled, ‘Ministers, heads of government agencies, ambassadors and other appointees with political ambitions to resign’, ordered all heads of agencies, departments, parastatals, and ambassadors with political ambitions to resign.

It could be recalled that on Friday, 6th May 2022, a group of farmers and businesspersons had reportedly purchased the N100m presidential nomination forms of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) for Emefiele, a move he said he did not influence.

The CBN Governor had earlier gone to court to challenge the Public Service Rule that requires public office holders to resign their positions before contesting elective positions.

While asked to respond to reports that Buhari had directed him to resign, Emefiele said, “There is no news now, but there will be news. You heard me, I said there is no news but there will be news”.

The main opposition party in the country, the PDP, after its 96th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Wednesday, 11th May 2022 restated its call for Emefiele’s sacking, arrest and investigation.

Speaking shortly after the meeting, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said, “NEC restated the call by the party for the immediate resignation, arrest and prosecution of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, for alleged manipulations and financial impropriety in the CBN which contributed to the collapse of our national economy.

“NEC vehemently rejected the continued stay of Mr. Emefiele as CBN Governor after being confirmed as a card-carrying member of the APC.

“The CBN is the custodian and keeper of all INEC sensitive materials used in all elections. Having been confirmed as a member of the APC, Mr. Emefiele can no longer be trusted with INEC sensitive materials which are key to guaranteeing free, fair and credible elections.”

At this juncture, it’s very clear and understandable that Mr Emefiele is really playing on the intelligence and intellectual ability of Nigerians, in their entirety. Not minding his previous actions and inactions, he still further tendered such provoking statements in the public sphere as if the citizens are dummies.

Having gone this far, he doesn’t deserve a resignation at this point, but a sack letter. Understanding that he is actually playing politics with the country’s economy, it’s unequivocally needless to demand for his resignation; he ought to rather be sacked by the President, unless there’s something they are not telling us.

Under Mr Emefiele’s watch, Nigeria’s currency, Naira, has become almost so useless in the international community, yet he isn’t bothered. Rather than hiding his face in shame, he’s further ridiculing the country’s status in the global space.

Some students of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State in Nigeria, on Thursday 12th May 2022, lynched a female student identified simply as Deborah, over an allegation of blasphemy against Muhammed, a prophet of the Islamic religion.

The deceased, of the Christian faith, was cruelly stoned to death on the campus and later set ablaze by the angry mob, who was mostly students of the said College.

The deceased, whose details were still sketchy at the time, was seen in a video that has gone viral on social media being brutally attacked until she collapsed, and was subsequently set ablaze.

She was said to have made “derogatory comments” against the aforementioned prophet, on a WhatsApp platform.

The College authority immediately announced the outright suspension of academic activities and consequent closure of the school, hence ordered students to vacate the campus with immediate effect.

A student of the college identified only by her first name, Jamila, narrated to newsmen how the incident started the previous day being Wednesday 11th May 2022.

She said it all started when someone sent a broadcast message to a WhatsApp group of the students, to which Deborah, the murdered student, belonged.

“It was that kind of message that will ask you to share with other groups if you don’t want evil to befall you.” disclosed Jamila.

But Deborah, now deceased, complained that such messages should not be sent to a WhatsApp group created for the sharing of important information about tests and assignments.

“Send us important information. This group was not created for you to send useless information. It was created for you to send past questions if there is a test or an assignment. It is not for you to send useless information. Which prophet?” Deborah was quoted to have stated this in a voice note she shared to the WhatsApp group.

Ms Jamila further notified that though she later deleted the voice note, other members of the group had already shared it among their friends in the school. It eventually sparked tension among the students on the campus.

It was gathered that when the students tried to mob Deborah, the school’s security men came to her rescue. They also informed the police when the situation started to get out of hand.

But a resident of Bado, the host community of the College, named Ibrahim, said the police couldn’t rescue Deborah as the mob kept hurling stones and objects at the police and the shelter where she was kept.

The shelter, which was originally a cell where the school security locked up thieves caught on the campus, has also been burnt down by the mob.

The above narrative indicates that the officers of the Nigeria Police were allegedly overpowered by the so-called mob, thereby making them seek their safety at the expense of the troubled lady who was eventually lynched.

Since I got the news, I have been trying to fathom the actual facts surrounding the ordeal. How could a group of trained policemen be overpowered by a mob? Does it imply they ran away, leaving the lady behind? Too many questions begging for answers.

What the police personnel ought to have done immediately when they arrived at the scene of the incident, was to move the troubled lady into their patrol vehicle and zoom off to safer ground.

As much as I’m vexed towards the members of the mob, I am angrier at the security personnel who were present at the scene of the incident but couldn’t save the poor lady.

This is reminding me of the case of one 74-year-old Mrs Bridget Agbahime, of Imo State origin, who was gruesomely lynched on Thursday 3rd June 2016 in Kofar Wambai market, still in the Northern part of Nigeria, precisely Kano State, over alleged blasphemy.

Mrs, Agbahime, who was of the Christian faith, alongside her husband, was reportedly attending to customers at the plastic containers market that fateful afternoon when Dauda Ahmed began the trouble that claimed her life, and almost led to the lynching of her husband.

Known as a trouble maker, Ahmed had positioned himself in front of Madam Bridget’s shop, with a kettle filled with water to perform ablution  (washing of feet, arm, face and head in preparations for usual Islamic prayer) in front of her shop. Her appeal that he should move elsewhere for the ablution resulted in exchange of words.

Ahmed had later misinformed his muslim brothers that the woman was insulting Prophet Muhammed (the religion’s revered figure), hence chaos ensued. A mob congregated, started chanting Allah Akbar (God is the greatest) as it threatened mayhem.

Efforts made by the leaders of the market to calm the mob, was resisted, as they threw stones at the old woman, beat her silly with dangerous objects. The fanatics were unstoppable as they attacked her husband and the market leader who made appeals to calm them. Eventually, they succeeded in killing the woman. The eventual arrival of the police saved her husband and the market leader.

Till date, absolutely nothing has been heard about the move and efforts of the law enforcement agencies to grant justice to the mobbed septuagenarian. Funnily enough, it was gathered that the law court later freed her suspected killers, Dauda Ahmed and Subeiru Abubakar, among others.

This is how many Nigerians have lost their precious lives on various occasions in different parts of the country, yet nothing is being done by the concerned authorities to grant justice to the victims of the incidents. Who is really deceiving who? 

The state of Texas has pushed back on its quest to enact a law that will give users the right to sue social media companies for censorship, a move that started last year.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals has paused the temporary injunction on controversial law HB 20, which another court blocked from taking effect last year. The Republican state introduced the bill last year following the notorious ban former President Donald Trump and other notable GOP members from social media.

Trade industry group and members of the tech community had challenged the move in court, securing an injunction to put it on hold.

Under the law, users will be able to sue large social media platforms with more than 50 million active monthly users such as Facebook and Twitter if they believe they were banned for their political views. HB 20 also prohibits social networks from removing or restricting content based on “the viewpoint of the user or another person.” 

Trade industry groups NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) managed to secure an injunction against the law last year. They argued that HB 20 would lead to the spread of misinformation and hate speech on social networks and that it also violates the websites’ First Amendment rights. The federal judge overseeing the case agreed that social networks have the right to moderate content under the First Amendment and also said that parts of the law are “prohibitively vague.”

Per Endgadget, in a hearing for the appeal filed by Texas, the state’s lawyers argued that social media platforms are “modern-day public squares.” That means they can be required to host content that they deem objectionable and are banned from censoring certain viewpoints. The 5th Circuit judges sided with Texas, with one even telling the trade groups during the hearing that social networks like Twitter are not websites but “internet providers” instead.

NetChoice counsel Chris Marchese called HB 20 “an assault on the First Amendment” and “constitutionally rotten from top to bottom” on Twitter. The trade groups plan to appeal immediately, but for now, HB 20 is fully in effect. 

A federal court blocked a similar law in Florida last year after the judge ruled that it violates Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that shields online platforms from liability for what their users’ post. Florida also appealed that decision, which will be decided by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

This is coming around the same Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk is moving to acquire Twitter in a bid to promote free speech. Musk said he would rescind the decision to ban Trump if the acquisition goes through.

Censorship has remained a big issue amid calls to hold social media platforms accountable for unhealthy posts by users. With the far Right pushing for more freedom for users to expressed themselves uncensored and the far Left backing the calls to limit hate speech, bullying, and racial abuse etc., social media platforms have been caught in perpetual dogfight even though Section 230 still serves as a hedge for them.